The present invention relates to a device for measuring the body temperature, and more particularly to a device for monitoring the ovulatory periods of a woman.
For many women, the use of birth control pills is not a viable means for avoiding pregnancy. Although the pill is a widely popular means of birth control, these women are either allergic to the pill or are religiously opposed to the use of artificial controls. As a result, these women seek more natural ways of birth control.
It is well known that during a woman's period of ovulation, her body temperature changes, typically rising, during which time the woman may become pregnant. Thus, the more precise a woman can determine her ovulatory period, the better she can achieve or avoid conception.
Unfortunately, the widespread use of this natural method of birth control has been hampered by the often lengthy, difficult and time consuming procedures required to effectively chart a woman's body temperature for birth control purposes. For example, a woman's ovulatory period is best determined by measuring and recording daily her basal body temperature. Since the basal body temperature is the body's temperature at rest, this means that immediately after awakening and before any significant activity, a woman needs to insert a thermometer into her vagina, wait several minutes, and record her body temperature. As a result of this complex daily procedure, a woman is more apt to forego recording her more useful vaginal temperature and instead keep track of her oral temperature. In addition, the accurate reading of a thermometer is often difficult, particularly in these circumstances where a tenth of a degree is significant. More significantly, a busy working woman that is late in getting up is likely to forget or neglect taking her basal body temperature. For that reason, complete data of a woman's basal body temperature over a lengthy period of time is rarely obtained in practice. Furthermore, later measurements of her body temperature are inaccurate substitutes for her basal body temperature, thereby making a determination of her ovulatory periods less precise.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device which automatically measures and records body temperature at a high accuracy and in regular fixed intervals to obtain a reliable table of body temperature data over a long period of time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device which measures and records a woman's uterine temperature, thereby providing more significant data for precisely determining her ovulatory period.